GreatStar Tools USA has announced today that they will have acquired the Shop-Vac corporation, which is perhaps the best-known wet/dry vacuum system brand on the market.
As you might recall, Shop-Vac recently laid off most of their employees as the company was shut down and all parts were put up for sale.
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GreatStar Tools USA is a subsidiary of Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial Co. LTD., based in China, has a portfolio of other USA-based brands, such as Arrow Fastener, Pony, Jorgensen, Goldblatt, and Prime-Line, and they also produce tools for many other tool brands and private labels.
The company has announced that it acquired substantially all of the assets of the Shop-Vac Corporation. As part of the arrangement, GreatStar will reopen Shop-Vac’s Williamsport, PA factory and hire back a number of employees who were laid off when the factory closed in September 2020.
At this time, the plan is for GreatStar to reestablish and expand Shop-Vac’s industry leadership in the workshop vacuum market, utilizing a mix of both Asian and USA-based manufacturing.
GreatStar says that they will prioritize restoring Shop-Vac’s distribution in the US, including [at] big-box retailers, major home centers, and hardware stores.
Finally, they add that:
Shop-Vac also adds core competencies to GreatStar’s manufacturing and operations, including expertise in injection molding; tool and die making; and electrical, industrial and polymer engineering capabilities.
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Discussion
This is a very interesting development, and good news in my opinion.
It’s surprising, as I had thought Shop-Vac was beyond saving, once the third party liquidation company came in and listed all of the equipment and machinery for sale.
GreatStar has saved and acquired several other USA-based brand names, such as Pony and Jorgensen, as well as Goldblatt and Arrow. Their hand tools are of decent quality, and can be found at home centers under private label branding such as Husky and Kobalt.
With this arrangement, GreatStar is reopening Shop-Vac’s Williamsport, PA factory and hiring back “a number of employees” who lost their jobs 3 months ago in September.
It will be interesting to see if and how the Shop-Vac acquisition will also bolster GreatStar’s breadth of experience and capabilities beyond shop vacuums.
We’ll follow this story and any new developments that arise. It will be interesting to see what happens, and also if GreatStar can avoid or reverse the problems that led to Shop-Vac’s seemingly abrupt collapse.
Tom
It’s my understanding that Great Star was the OEM for the short-lived Craftsman Ultimate Collection. Those were, in my opinion, the nicest non-USA tools that Craftsman ever sold.
Jim Felt
That’s obviously a good sign.
Brandon
They also made many of their regular wrenches and some pliers that can be identified with a Z on them, right after the part number. Even those are pretty good and have a nice feel and finish to them. Back when my local Sears was open, I would look for those if I needed something. Regardless, I am intrigued at this announcement.
S
Great – China buying more of our country…
“Saved”?
Jim Felt
Obviously, it’s better then the US losing even more of our Wall Streeted out manufacturing base.
Maybe we need an “industrial policy”? Not dictated exclusively by the upper .01% able to self lobby? Maybe Citizens United should cease to exist in this light?
Just a thought. Or two.
Kizzle
Hey, hey, hey. Corporations ARE people. They should get to lobby as any citizen would. I mean, corporations don’t have any more advantage than any other actual human being, so why restrict them? They aren’t able to throw more money around than you or I, right? Wait…prosecute corporations? No, no, no. It’s not like they’re people. You can’t prosecute them.
*Should be read with an immense sarcastic tone.
flotsam
So WHO is the American country that is buying the company -other- than this Chinese company???
You can’t shame a company for selling to a non-US buyer, that has been tried and failed miserably,
Rich b
Sounds like they saved some jobs for citizens of our country. I mean maybe you should save the company. Then jobs would be saved by someone from our country.
A W
Regardless of the politics, I’m happy to hear that a large number of Americans are getting there jobs back. I’m sure this is incredibly good news for those families.
A W
Their. I need to proof read better on my phone.
Scott K
Interesting that this happened after the liquidation. Glad to hear that people may be getting hired back and that some US manufacturing will have a second chance.
fred
It sounds like good but a bit bittersweet news. Greatstar seems adept at buying up bankrupt USA brands – the ones you mention – plus Millers Falls – a brand that once seemed to go head to head with Stanley for carpenter’s tools.
DAVID
Bittersweet indeed. Also happy these American workers keep their jobs. But, once again, it’s a Chinese-controlled business taking control of a piece of our manufacturing. They benefit where we fail. It’s becoming a distressing trend that’s hard to accept.
Julian Tracy
When is the last time Shop Vac made a vacuum that wasn’t just another crappy loud shop Vac similar to every other crappy loud model? I understand some folks just like to make do with the cheapest tools possible – but I can;t stand a crap shop vac with plastic wheels, cheap hoses, and decibel rating in the 95+ range. I use my Vacs near every day – might as well get a good quality one. As evidenced by many reviews – that doesn’t automatically mean you need to spend stupid $$$$ on the Hilti’s or Festools… there are many high quality vacs (aka dust collectors) available at very decent pricing. Witness the recent deals where both the Metabo and Flex high end Hepa vacs being sold brand new for around $250
DAVID
Based on my experience, hard to disagree. In the past 10 years or so, I’ve purchased one Shop Vac and one Craftsman XSP (Vacmaster) vac and the Shop Vac is weaker and louder. I haven’t considered a Shop Vac branded product since.
Peter
Yeah, shop vac has a long way to be considered by me again.
Rigid has the cheap vacuum market covered as it is imho.
Matt J.
Mostly agree, but the SVX2-branded (whatever the heck that stood for…pretty sure it isn’t actually dual stage) were pretty good. Granted, they were priced comparable to the Dewalts, but they were available locally I bought one for my dad and found it to be pretty nice. Head to head at around $100 is was at least competitive. Quieter than his older Craftsman and some of the Rigids I’ve used and cheaper than a dust collector. Think I’d still take a comparably spec’d Dewalt for the slight premium, but definitely better than the rest of the lineup.
Hon Cho
One skill that has eluded Chinese companies is building brands. The Japanese built brands by building quality products. China, not so much. Buying brands is so much simpler. Volvo automobiles owned by Chinese, GE Appliances owned by Chinese, now Shop Vac owned by Chinese. The upside is that some of the trillions of dollars we send to China stay in the USA and perhaps jobs too but it’s a complicated issue. China needs to do something with all the money we spend with them and buying up companies, real estate, politicians (ha!), etc… is one way to put the money to use. The Chinese government tries to keep tabs on outflows of money from China but Chinese financiers and their cronies in the the financial centers of the world are hard at work putting their growing assets to work while avoiding actually moving money in and out of China.
Folks, you get to vote with your money everyday. No, you can’t vote with your dollars like Jeff Bezos, but you can make choices that support what you believe in. Buy USA and from our neighbors and friends whenever you can (and I do realize that sometimes it’s very hard). There’s often no “best” choice but if you take a moment to think about your alternatives, I’ll bet you can find a “good” choice that won’t necessarily cost you an arm and a leg more than the Chinese version.
Oh, I have two Shop Vacs that are loud and suck (in a good way) . They were cheap and do what is asked of them. Other than having to wear hearing protection when I use them, they are as equally as good and as loud as the other Craftsman and Ridgid shop vacs in my arsenal.
Stuart
Fenix (flashlights) and We Knives are two very strong Chinese brands.
Look what Chervon has done with the EGO brand of cordless outdoor power tools, although that’s kind of messy as Home Depot played a huge part in this.
There are some very good Chinese brands out there.
How many quality European tool brands are there that we’re simply not exposed to here? Not all Chinese brands are going to seek success in the North American market, it really depends on the product category.
Hon Cho
With luck some good will come to the Shop Vac workers in this purchase.
Stuart, Your response to my post reinforced my points. Fenix may be the premier flashlight maker of the world, but other than flashlight aficionados, few folks have heard of Fenix. Same for the knife maker. There are lots of Chinese smartphone manufacturers but if it’s not Apple or Samsung and Google it’s third tier no matter how good the product may be. Chervon bought Skil from Bosch, right? Consumers don’t know who Chervon is, that’s why they buy brands and partner with places like Home Depot and Wal-Mart to move their goods. It’s not that Chinese companies are incapable of making good stuff, they just don’t have the brand equity that Western, Japanese and Korean brands have. Buying a brand is a quick and easy way to market share. (I believe it’s deceptive too, but that’s another issue). Yes, they have to back the brand name up with products the marketplace wants. It’s the same as a company buying a moribund listed stock company to gain a stock listing without all the work. A workaround to get a recognized name in the marketplace.
I know people just want to buy stuff and have it work for them without breaking the bank. I like that too. We’re just a lot more economically connected and powerful in subtle ways than most of us realize.
Stuart
Huawei is a Chinese brand.
TikTok is a Chinese service.
Alibaba is a Chinese-based company.
Here are some more:
Lenovo (computer products)
Anker (mobile accessories)
Haier (consumer appliances)
Xiaomi (mobile products, never sold here that I’ve seen)
The brands and companies are there, they’re just not obvious. Until right now, I didn’t know Haier was a Chinese company.
With respect to mobile device share, Google and their Pixel are not anywhere in the top rankings globally. The USA is a different market, and we’re not going to be exposed to everything, even products hugely popular elsewhere. In terms of tools, there are some brands that pull in huge revenue percentages from USA sales, while for some global brands USA sales might be a drop in the bucket.
In terms of units sold, Samsung is still king of the hill, but from all the charts and data I’ve seen, Huawei has been beating Apple, and Xiaomi has started coming close.
(None of this is meant in opposition to what you said, except about the Pixel phones being ranked among Samsung and Apple; your comment prompted me to expand and dig a little deeper, and these are the details that came up.)
AngryDrumGuy
A lot of friends and their families will go back to work in the local economy.
Regardless of the circumstances, this is “GreatNews” (lol).
Fusionman
Is it possible Shop-Vac refused to sell to a Chinese company and that’s why it went to the liquidator? Or maybe GreatStar got a better deal from the liquidator.
Stuart
No. Shop-Vac has said that they were working with a potential buyer but that the buyer “walked away from the deal.”
Sounds like a different brand expressed interest but then saw something they didn’t like. GreatStar picked up the pieces.
Seems just like when products go on clearance at the store. One person picks something up, but then puts it back in the shelf. It’s later put on clearance and someone comes by and picks it up before it’s designated to be scrapped.
John
This is a tale we hear often, a failed American company purchased by a forgien entity. An American company who could not maneuver to avoid competition from eroding their market share. My honest belief is the failure of a lot of these American companies stem from way to much focus on short term objective to boost financial sheets. I buy products I believe in and, are for the price, better then the next cheaper one. I’ll dissect this last statement. This does not mean the cheapest, often I’ll buy very expensive price points. But I won’t spend $100 while there is a better one at $95. But I will spent $250 for the same thing if it better them the $100 and important to me. Unfortunately most American companies focus on a 2-3 year window and the only thing you can achieve in that time frame are cheap products sold for the most profile. Then when the competition change you have nothing anyone wants and everyone is buy the competition.
fred
My understanding was that ShopVac was a family “run” business – not a publicly traded one. So they did not likely have Wall Street analysts breathing down their necks about quarterly profits. Who knows – but they may have done better if they had. Family run businesses are a funny thing – and many do not survive much beyond generation #2. You need to know how to manage, when to forego profit-taking and reinvest in capital, when to expand and how to retrench, how to treat and motivate your employees, how to continue to innovate and improve product and processes etc.. Having been in with like-minded partners and buying out some struggling businesses – we saw ample evidence of small companies where the owners only saw their business from a single perspective as a cash cow to support a lavish lifestyle. I can’t tell if ShopVac’s demise and rebirth had anything to do with this – but realize that competitively producing consumer products here in the USA is becoming increasingly difficult. Glad to see that the PA factory and workers will get another chance.
PJ
Exactly! I despise PE, Wall Street and corporate quarterly thinking – but there’s no evidence that’s what sunk this family held company.
There absolutely must have been management issues. This company invented their product category and then somehow slipped to being the worst choice in it. That’s a management failure accruing from decades of mistakes.
I remember when my Dad bought his first shop vac over two decades ago. It was crap! Absolute garbage, the wheels literally fell off within months. He has the orange brand now, as do I.
Here’s to hoping Great Star can turn the ship around and they continue to provide employment for US workers.
Michael Moscicki
Will they only be keeping the Williamsport, PA factory or is the Binghamton, NY one also included?
Just asking because Craftsman still lists on their website that some of their wet/dry vacs are made in Binghamton, NY.
On that note, I’m suprised Stanley B&D didn’t buy Shop Vac or Western Forge for that matter. What easier way to make USA made tools than to buy an existing factory like they did when they bought Waterloo Industries which made tool boxes.
Stuart
It is my understanding that the PA facility is the one being reopened, or at least the press release and announcement did not mention any other locations.
Pastor Dan
I’ve owned two ShopVac machines. Bought one around 2009 on a Black Friday doorbuster deal. It was totally awesome. Never saw another quite like it. Left it with the youngest when we “retired” here in FL (2018), and bought another small one for use in my puttering shop/wife’s potting she’d. It leaves a little something to be desired. Last time I got bags for it I bought extra, figuring they might not be available ♾️ forever.
So, who wants to bet against me that the Chinese corp will offer to rehire the PA plant workers at around half their prior wages? A friend wants to know. That friend is betting my way.
JR Ramos
It would seem the opposite is true in the short term. Perhaps it will turn out well for all but there is always the risk of sending the knowledge away offshore for good, say if Great Star gets up to speed and later decides to close production here and move it back “home.” Seems like there were some similar events with GTD and Kennametal.
https://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2021/02/new-owners-rehire-shop-vac-employees/
JR Ramos
It should be noted also that Shop Vac had already moved production of many items/parts to China years ago (one reason that it became harder to get parts from them). I think they still made some things but there was a lot of assembly-only as well.